Several women's organizations yesterday released a list of legislative candidates they deem friendly or unfriendly to issues relating to women.
"A panel of judges at the Awakening Foundation, after consulting with other women's organizations, has come up with a list of recommended candidates and a list of candidates to boycott," foundation chairwoman Fan Yun (范雲) said.
The groups' main criteria in compiling the recommendation list are whether lawmakers worked to promote legislation enhancing gender equality and women's rights or participated in relevant movements. Lawmakers with records of discriminatory statements were put on the boycott list, she said.
The top five candidates on the group's recommendation list are Huang Shu-ying (黃淑英) and Yang Fan-wan (楊芳婉) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Hsu Chung-hsiung (徐中雄) and Wang Yu-ting (王昱婷) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) of the Taiwan Solidarity Union.
All five are serving lawmakers who were the main advocates behind amendments to the Gender Equality Employment Law (性別平等工作法), Domestic Violence Prevention Act (家庭暴力防治法), Sexual Harassment Prevention Law (性騷擾防治法) and sections in the Civil Code related to women's and children's rights, the group said.
KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) and independent legislator Shen Chih-hwei (沈智慧) also received commendations from the group because of their efforts in pushing for legislation concerning women's rights.
First-time candidates Chen Man-li (陳曼麗), Peng Yen-wen (彭渰雯) and Wang Fang-ping (王芳萍) of the Green Party Taiwan, and Annie Lee (李安妮) of the Taiwan Solidarity Union were also commended for their active participation in the women's rights movement.
The DPP's Tsai Chi-fang (蔡啟芳), Lin Chun-mo (林重謨), Liao Pen-yen (廖本煙) and Lee Chia-chin (李嘉進) were put on the boycott list for their discriminatory statements against women, Fan said.
"From the lists we can see that many of the women-friendly candidates are from smaller parties, while many of the gender-unfriendly lawmakers are from the nation's two major parties," Fan said. "We therefore would like to urge voters to give smaller parties a chance to play a key role in the legislature."
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Passengers aboard Korean Airlines Flight KE189 arrived in Taichung safely yesterday after a scare the previous day encountering uncontrolled decompression, which injured 13 passengers. Flight KE189 departed from Incheon at 4:45pm on Saturday bound for Taichung with 125 passengers on board. The flight was above Jeju Island when a fault in the pressurization system occurred 50 minutes after takeoff. Online flight tracker Flightradar24’s data show that the plane dropped more than 8,000 meters within 15 minutes, before it returned and landed back at Incheon Airport at 19:38pm. Thirteen passengers on board had a headache or earache due to the incident and were hospitalized. A different
China might seek to isolate Taiwan and weaken its economy through a “quarantine,” which would make it difficult for the US to respond and force Taipei to negotiate on unification, CNN reported on Saturday. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “increasingly bellicose actions” toward Taiwan have heightened concerns that Beijing would use its military against Taiwan, it said, citing a report by think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). However, China might choose to initiate a quarantine, rather than a military invasion of Taiwan, to avoid US involvement, it said. “A quarantine [is] a law enforcement-led operation to control
A new message broadcast on the Taipei MRT’s Wenhu (Brown) Line urging passengers to yield their seats to those in need, not necessarily elderly people, would be extended to other MRT lines and public transportation in the capital, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday. Chiang was responding to reporters’ questions on the sidelines of a news conference at Taipei City Hall promoting healthy walking. Several disputes over priority seats on public transportation have recently been reported, sparking debate about who qualifies to sit in them, as most of the cases involved elderly people asking young people to give up their